In the Hearts of A Man and A Beast
by Ivy is Utterly Lost
Summary: A lengendary monster hunter confronted with a mission he thought he finished. Two orphans tricked into false security. A vampire full of desire for blood-thirsty vengeance. A mysterious source. A missing piece to a legacy.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own the movie Van Helsing or any of the character from it. All rights go to Universal Studios and Steven Sommers **

Damp, dark and musty, the old castle stood on a hill as it had for centuries. At one point it had been beautiful and well cared for. But those were in its glory days. Now the place had fallen into disrepair as no one dared venture into its shadow.

Or did they? Tonight, footsteps sounded as someone ascended the hill up towards the old castle. A young man, about twenty, walked up the old castle steps, pushed forward by a weak sense of confidence and the threat of a lost bet hanging over his head. He did his best to ignore the eerie sounds that resounded through the forest about him, to block the sinking, acidic fear that gnawed at the back of his mind. All he wanted to do was walk inside the castle, find it to be empty and therefore prove that Dracula really was dead, and leave. No problem.

So why was he afraid?

Finally he arrived at the top of the stairs and stared down the massive set of doors in front of him. Drawing in a long breath of the icy night air, he gave them a firm push. Even though he was as nervous as rabbit, what small amount of pride compelled him to continue shoving against the doors until they at last opened up to him. At least now he could say he was first living creature to enter in a long while. It was a feeble thought, but it at least kept his sanity about him as he hesitantly stepped inside.

However, the moment his foot pressed onto the disintegrated velvet carpet underneath, there was a loud whoosh and a drop in air pressure behind him. He whipped his head around and found to his dismay that the doors had swung shut on their own accord. With no other thing for him to do, the man looked on in front of him, shivering a little from both the cold and fear. The room was very dark, except for the silver light of the crescent moon flowing in through the massive window to his left, revealing the true, sad state of the building. Nary a breath was made in the main room - no signal of life was around... much to the man's relief. It seemed as though the legendary Van Helsing had indeed freed Transylvania from its curse at last. Now the man could return home and tell his friends - who had dared him to make this journey in the first place - that there was nothing to be scared of. Maybe someone could come to finally buy the property and make something of it again.

The man turned and marched back to the doors, feeling far more confident than he had just a few minutes earlier. He grabbed the door handles and gave a strong tug... but they refused to budge. Now the man was worried. _Wouldn't Dracula's spells have died with him?_he wondered. It appeared not. The man tried the doors, this time with a sense of desperation, praying a catholic prayer that he might be saved from the devil that dwelt in this castle. His breath now was wheezy and shallow as he glanced about himself, searching for other ways to escape. He walked over to the window and picked up a splintered piece of wood that seemed once to be a supporting beam, and aimed to throw it towards the window. But as he wound up his throw, a _something,_cold and clammy, grabbed his hand. In horror, he whirled around to see the culprit, but instead found... nothing. Just the utter blackness that bled into the pool of light from the window.

The man paused at this. Had he imagined the hand that grabbed his own? It appeared so, yet it had felt completely real. He turned around and suddenly from his mouth erupted a scream.

Behind him had stood everyone in Transylvania's worst nightmare, the vampire king, the one who was supposed to be dead. Count Vladislaus Dracula himself. His pale skin was nigh unto white in the moonlight, framed from the sharp contrast of midnight black hair that was pulled smoothly back into a ponytail; he flashed a devilish grin, waiting patiently while the man continued to scream his voice out. When the man finished, Dracula then stated coolly, "They can't hear you. You came alone, remember?"

The man finally stopped screaming and turned to the vampire king once more, his heart pounding in his chest. "Y-you're s-suppose t-t-to b-be d-dead," the man gasped, shaking from the utter terror that coursed through his body.

"So I have gathered," Dracula drawled as his smirk faded. "And I am. Now, would you care to explain why you dared trespass on my property? Perhaps you had greedy intentions to sell it?"

The man didn't reply; instead, he stood stock-still, unsure of what to do. Finally he said, "We all th-thought that you were g-gone, um, s-sir."

"And I was. Yet I had still hoped I could return to my home." The vampire was now frowning at him. "Is it a common thing for you humans to sell properties when the owners are not at home?" He began to pace slowly around the man.

"No, I m-meant that we thought th-that V-Van Helsing had..."

Dracula roared with anger and grabbed the man by his throat. The man sucked in a desperate gulp of air and tried to pull away. "Do not speak of that name in my presence!" Dracula hissed. "He is the most loathful thing ever created. He has destroyed everything of mine: my home, my children, my brides and even my servants. He was my _friend_, and he repaid me with the murder of everything I loved!" Now his voice cracked, despite himself.

"I'm sorry, s-sir," the man gasped out. "It was a m-mistake on my p-part. P-please, forgive m-me. I-if you'll just l-let me go, I'll be on my w-way."

Then the Count smiled. "I'm afraid I cannot do that," he purred. "I cannot have you running off to the village and telling everyone that I am here. You must understand, no?" A twisted smile teased at the vampire's lips.

"W-What?" The man cried, his face turning pale, "please, sir, I beg of you, don't..."

"Don't what?" Dracula's nose crinkled in amusement. "Feed off of you? Kill you? I honestly believe it would be only fair for me to do those things, considering all that the humans have done to me. But, lucky for you, I'm not hungry now. I fed just the other day, in fact."

"Th-then what will you do with me?" The man asked, feeling as though he would not enjoy the answer.

"As you well know, I lost everything except this dear old place, including my servants. I need to find new ones should my new plans succeed. Mortal as you may be, you'll do for the time being. And if you prove to be _trustworthy_..." He hissed the word. "...we will see if we can fix that."

"Wait, you want me to help you with whatever schemes..."

"PLANS!" Dracula roared, "I do not make schemes. And yes, that is what I just said, is it not? Or would you prefer I tear you limb from limb?"

"Ok, ok," the man agreed feebly, unsure of what else to do, "What are these _plans _that I must help you with?"

Dracula released his grip on the man's throat, dropping him to the floor. "That is for me to know. You should just do as you are told. But mark my words. Van Helsing will pay for what he has done."

His cold laughter rang through the night, gripping the hearts of all the woodland creatures that heard with pure terror.


	2. An Unanswered Prayer

The Harvest Festival: the most magical time of year for Jay Racougan. It always provided her with a type of innocent hope - even if it was never returned in the way that she had hoped for; nevertheless, she spent most of her religious practices in the mornings wishing and praying for a family for her and her best friend, Talia Versine. Today was no exception, even though she was in a hurry to scramble out the door to visit the celebrations. With her wide eyes heavenward, she once again mumbled the memorized prayer as she had said a thousand times before:

"Please give me and Talia a mommy and a daddy that love us and will give us a home. Amen."

It was simple, but heartfelt for a six-year old. She was still rather incapable of having critical thoughts that explained the reason she had no parents in the first place; in fact, the only reason that Jay even prayed in the first place was because that was a mandatory practice in the tiny orphanage she shared with ten other children. The owner of the battered building just outside of town was deeply religious and made sure everyone around her knew it. Every day she would make sure all of the children had said their prayers - those who did, got breakfast that morning. Those who didn't had to go hungry. The children learned quickly enough that the woman was serious about her threats, including Jay and Talia.

Today, Jay quickly changed into a simple, tattered dress, an ugly montage of moss green and mud brown, patched up in at least a dozen places: in every aspect of the word, it was drab. Slipping on a pair of hand-me-down flats, Jay then rushed down the rickety stairs and greeted the headmistress with a sweet, "Hallo!"

The headmistress smiled at the young girl, but that was short-lived. "Where is Talia?" she questioned sternly, knowing that the two were practically inseparable.

Jay hooked a thumb behind her just as the blonde reached the bottom of the stairs. "We said our prayers," she confirmed before she was asked. The older woman smiled as response and ushered the two girls over to the table, where a bowl of something hot and brown was waiting for them to be eaten.

_Oatmeal again? _Jay thought, but she dared not speak her mind. The headmistress was very strict on being grateful for what one had instead of complaining about what one didn't have, almost as strict on that as she was about religious activities. "It does one no good to complain," she would say, "So you'd better learn to count your blessings or you'll live a very dull and hard life."

Jay began to eat and listened to the other children talk about the festival as she did so. Every orphan was incredibly excited about the Harvest Festival, as it was a time when many of the Transylvanian folk felt generous after having received such large harvests and would give the children gifts. Sometimes certain children would even be adopted. This year was particularly special as no one had to worry whether or not the vampires would decide to "attend" the festival as well. One older boy, Aven Verstaran, who had attended several times before had told Jay and Talia about the year the vampires had visited. The story had given both of them nightmares and last year they hadn't even wanted to attend. But thankfully nobody would have to worry about that this year.

Jay finished her breakfast and turn to look at Talia, who was unusually quiet. Talia was normally quiet as it was, but on days like this she'd usually be talking just about as much as everyone else. Jay poked Talia's elbow. "Hey, what are you thinking about?" She asked playfully.

"Oh just, you know," Talia said, "I'm wondering if we'll get families or not."

"Oh I hope so," Jay replied eagerly, "I even prayed about it this morning!"

"You pray about that every day!" laughed Illia, another orphan girl, "By now I'd suppose God isn't even listening! I doubt He cares about orphans anyhow."

The headmistress smacked her right hand on the table to let everyone know she was upset by that statement. "Of course He is listening, Illia!" She scolded, "Some things just take a little time. We all know that everyone in this village has prayed for deliverance from the vampires for centuries and God has finally answered that prayer and used the good Saint Van Helsing to give them their just punishment. Everything is in God's good timing."

"But we don't have centuries to wait," said Velken, one of the boys, who was named after Prince Velken himself.

"And I'm certain God knows that," replied the headmistress, "Now finish up your breakfasts or else we'll be late to the festival."

"I wonder if they felt bad," Talia murmured as she scraped the last of the oatmeal out of her bowl.

"Who?" Jay asked curiously, "the villagers?"

"No, the vampires. Do you think that they felt bad when Saint Van Helsing started killing their friends? Or sad that everyone hated them? Do you think Dracula was upset when he lost his wives?"

The headmistress slammed her hand down on the table for the second time that morning. Everyone stared at Talia in utter shock. Jay looked down at her feet, unsure of how to react. "Miss Versine," the headmistress began, "that... name is not to be used in this building or anywhere else, do you understand me? Don't ever let me catch you using it again! It is cursed and evil."

"Sorry, Headmistress," Talia said, "but do you think they felt bad that everyone hated them?"

"They were demons, Talia!" snapped the headmistress, " They were incapable of feeling anything but lust and hunger. I don't want to talk about them anymore. Little girls like you shouldn't speak about such evil things in such a way!"

"But..." Talia began. Jay worriedly pinched Talia's arm and shook her head. She knew that if Talia kept arguing with the headmistress, she wouldn't get to go to the festival. Talia looked at Jay and reluctantly stopped talking. Jay breathed out a soft sigh of relief. Now hopefully nothing else would vex the headmistress and they could get on with their day.

Unfortunately, Talia didn't forget her questions and proceeded to ask Jay about them after breakfast. Jay didn't know what to say. "I think it's best if we didn't talk about that," she told Talia softly so the headmistress wouldn't hear, "Headmistress won't like it and we'll have to stay home from the festival!"

"Yeah, but don't you ever wonder?" Talia asked, clearly not going to give this up that easily.

"Yeah, maybe, I suppose," Jay admitted nervously as she shuffled her feet, "I don't really think about it very much. But anyway, let's not talk about it. I don't wanna get in trouble."

Talia sighed softly. "Okay," she said, "but still, I feel kinda bad about them losing everything like that."

"That's because you never saw them," Aven said, grinning as he walked over, "They were really ugly and loud too. And they'd swoop down and carry off villagers, even kids like us. You could hear the people screaming in terror and agony when they got bit. That's how Illia became an orphan, you know. Dracula took her mother and ate her!"

"Headmistress! Talia, Jay and Aven are talking about the vampires again and Aven said that name you didn't want us to say!" Velken yelled from the stairs. Jay's eyes widened as the headmistress marched into view. "It's not even eight in the morning and I'm already dealing with nonsense," she said sternly, "I thought I told you three to go get ready, not idly chat about evil creatures!"

"I am ready, Headmistress," Jay interjected, signaling to her shoes and coat, "Talia just wanted to ask me a question is all and Aven came over."

The headmistress sighed. Then she turned to Talia. "I understand your curiosity about these things," she admitted, "I was just like that when I was a little girl..."

"God only knows how long ago that was," muttered Aven under his breath. Unfortunately for him, the headmistress heard him and he was rewarded with a stinging slap. "For that remark, you will be staying home," she snapped at Aven, "Go to the boys' bedroom now!"

Aven trudged up the stairs, grumbling as he went. The headmistress turned back to Talia. "I used to ask all sorts of questions. But those were different times and the vampires would still lurk around at night in search of prey, so I needed to know those things. But now you don't have to worry about it. The vampires are dead."

"Aren't there other vampires besides the ones who lived near here?" Jay asked, becoming interested in this conversation.

"I don't know for sure, but we used to hear reports that there were. But their king is dead so if there are any, they've most likely gone into hiding" replied the headmistress, "Now let's not speak of this anymore. What are you girls planning on doing first at the festival?"

"I want to go apple bobbing!" Jay exclaimed excitedly, "but I'm not really sure. Last year, there were so many fun things to do."

"Don't we have to sit through a long Mass before we do anything?" Velken asked as he came down the stairs.

"Yes, we will sit through Mass, but it won't be all that long. It's just to remind us that God comes before fun," the headmistress answered.

"Sometimes I wish I didn't have to sit through Mass," Talia muttered. Jay looked at her in horror, mostly because she knew that if the headmistress heard her, Talia would be in trouble. She tried to signal for Talia to stop talking, but Talia continued. "If I was a vampire I wouldn't have to worry about having church stuff to do before every fun celebration!"

"Miss Versine!" came the bark. Talia's head snapped up the instant she heard the horrified voice of the headmistress. "That is by far the most wicked thing I ever heard you say! If the priests hear of this, you could get yourself into trouble far worse than any you've had here! You will stay home from the festival today and think on it and repent of what you have said. You will come with us to Mass and I'll have Mr. Levi, the janitor, take you and Aven back."

Jay stared in shock, suddenly aware of the gravity of the situation. "Please, Headmistress," she pleaded, tugging on the older woman's skirt, "Please let Talia come. I'm sure she didn't mean anything. It won't be the same without her."

"I'm sorry, Jay, but she needs to learn that she can't say such things. If I don't teach her to walk down the straight and the narrow, no one will." The headmistress looked down at the little black-haired girl sorrowfully.

Jay crossed her arms. "That isn't God, that's you not letting her come!" She retorted, "and if Talia can't come, I won't either."

Talia touched Jay's arm. "You don't have to stay for me," she whispered, "it's my fault."

Jay nodded. "I know," was all she said.

In the end, Jay did stay home with Talia, much to her own disappointment, but her loyalty meant more to her than a celebration. When everyone had gone, and she was alone in her room, she kneeled in the floor prayed again - this time as a question, and not a request. She wondered aloud if she and Talia would ever get the parents they both wanted to have so badly. Maybe this was just all part of some mysterious plan, as the priests would always speak of; like a tapestry, and all we can see is the unfinished product. With a small, dejected sigh, she suggested that Talia apologize for wanting to be a vampire, the wicked, unholy things they were. Of course Talia agreed, now feeling more guilt than irritation by that time in the afternoon.

The two spent the afternoon playing with the dirty rag dolls they shared with the other girls and trying to guess what the festival was like this year. Once or twice they had to chase Aven away from ruining their game.

That night, as Jay went to sleep, she prayed one more time, asking God to send an angel who would love both her and Talia to watch over them until they got parents. Though she felt that it was a rather silly request, it was also genuine and meaningful - so much so, she pillowed her head, comforted enough that she was ready to drift to peaceful sleep.

Little did she know that outside, as she slept, that "angel" arrived on their front doorstep, waiting to be invited in.


End file.
